'He Earned It'

June 29, 1985

A SOCIAL Security recipient wrote to criticize President Reagan's proposal to freeze the cost-of-living allowance on Social Security. The critic remarked that, after all, the president is a wealthy man. That was evidence of shallow thought.

Whereas Franklin Roosevelt and the Kennedy sons were born to millions, and never had to earn a dollar in their lives, Ronald Reagan started from scratch. As John Houseman in the television commercial would say, ''He did it the old-fashioned way -- he earned it.''

Certainly Reagan was no rich man in the early 1930s when he was doing sports broadcasts on radio at $10 per event for part of his living.

One greatness of America lies in the opportunity it affords every citizen to climb to the top. When a president gets there by his own honest endeavors, he earns the right to be respectfully heard on any substantial matter of state. This is because he speaks from the common sense gained in getting where he is.